Victoria College, Toronto

Victoria University

Former names	Upper Canada Academy (1836–1841); Victoria College (1841–1884)
Motto	Abeunt studia in mores
Motto in English	Studies pass into character
Type	Federated college of the University of Toronto (1890–)
Established	October 12, 1836
Endowment	C$411 million
Chancellor	Wendy Cecil
President	William Robins
Principal	Angela Esterhammer
Undergraduates	2,793
Location	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Campus	Urban
Mascot	Lion
Website	vic.utoronto.ca

Victoria University is a college of the University of Toronto, founded in 1836 and named for Queen Victoria. It is commonly called Victoria College, informally Vic, after the original academic component that now forms its undergraduate division. Since 1928, Victoria College has retained secular studies in the liberal arts and sciences while Emmanuel College has functioned as its postgraduate theological college.

Victoria is situated in the northeastern part of the university campus, adjacent to St. Michael's College and Queen's Park. Among its residential halls is Annesley Hall, a National Historic Site of Canada. A major centre for Reformation and Renaissance studies, Victoria is home to international scholarly projects and holdings devoted to pre-Puritan English drama and the works of Desiderius Erasmus.

Victoria College was founded as the Upper Canada Academy by the Wesleyan Methodist Church. In 1831, a church committee decided to locate the academy on four acres (1.6 hectares) of land in Cobourg, Ontario, east of Toronto, because of its central location in a large town and access by land and water. In 1836, Egerton Ryerson received a royal charter for the institution from King William IV in England, while the Upper Canadian government was hesitant to provide a charter to a Methodist institution. The school officially opened to male and female students on October 12, 1836, with Ryerson as the first president and Matthew Ritchie as principal. Although the school taught a variety of liberal arts subjects, it also functioned as an unofficial Methodist seminary. In 1841, it was incorporated as Victoria College, named for Queen Victoria, and finally received a charter from the Upper Canadian Legislature.